Murata launched a compact, cost-effective UHF RFID reader/writer module that the manufacturer claims to be 80% smaller in volume than competing solutions on the market. Measuring just 23x13x 2.8mm, the reader/writer module can easily be incorporated into the next generation of mobile devices and portable RFID readers.

The unit operates in the 860-960MHz frequency range with an output level of +17dBm. The module features UART, SPI and I2C interfaces, it operates from a 3.6V supply and draws 800mA maximum.

“This drastic size reduction is the first step to expand UHF RFID services beyond logistics, enabling new consumer services based on mobile phones that would integrate UHF RFID” commented Alexander Schmoldt, in charge of business development for Europe at Murata. The company hopes to be able to shrink this module to 13x13mm by the end of 2010.

Murata also reduced the size of its close-coupling Magicstrap UHF RFID solution that requires no external antenna and allows manufacturers to effectively reduce the size of a close-coupled UHF RFID tag to 3.2×1.6mm.

Professor Gordon Povey and Wired magazine pin-up Professor Harald Haas believe that visible light communication – or li-fi – can challenge the dominance of GPS, or the Global Positioning System. They believe they can use the light emitted from LED lightbulbs placed in buildings to transmit data, not only to download the latest film to a laptop, but also to tell us where we are with pinpoint accuracy. Just so long as we are in the line of sight of the light source.

Whatever the technology, these real-time locating systems (RTLS) are all about “triangulation”, explains Professor Ajay Malik, former head of engineering for Motorola and author of RTLS for Dummies. In the case of GPS, this means your position is worked out to within a few metres’ accuracy (depending on your handset), relative to four or more of the GPS navigation satellites visible to your device at a given time, out of about 30 satellites in total. Assisted GPS or A-GPS on mobile phones uses the computer power of the phone networks to help make these same calculations – if more slowly – when the radio signal from the satellites is poor.

Global positioning: A timeline

1940s Development of long range navigational systems like LORAN based on earlier British technology

1973 Global Positioning System first imagined

1978 First GPS satellite is launched

1983 Ronald Reagan decides to make GPS free-of-charge

1994 Initial network of 24 GPS satellites completed

1996 Clinton signs order formally recognising the dual use of GPS by civilians and the military